


Memory

by castronomicaaal



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-16
Updated: 2015-03-16
Packaged: 2018-03-18 03:22:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3554183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/castronomicaaal/pseuds/castronomicaaal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rick helps Beth to recall something she had forgotten.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Memory

**Author's Note:**

  * For [helenastrangetown](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=helenastrangetown).



> This takes place in Alexandria. Beth has since survived the gunshot, making her way back to team family. This was written specifically for helenastrangetown, and I hope you like it!

Beth watches Rick carefully for a moment once they’re settled inside, safe and sound and no worse for the wear.

The rain is still coming down in bucketful’s, something the blonde admits she’s grateful for. Hopefully the noise of the storm will drown out any noise the pair may make while trapped inside of here. The last thing they need are to lure any walkers to their door.

She hopes for a moment that Maggie won’t worry even though she already knows the dark haired girl will. It’s pretty much written into her job description as an older sister. Still, Beth knows that Maggie trusts her to come home safe and that she trusts Rick to ensure that safety.

“It’s chilly,” she admits after a moment, running her hands up and down her arms and along her soaked clothes. The rain had come swift and slick, drowning them out, causing her garments to stick to her skin and soak her to the bone. She isn’t quite sure of how long her and Rick were out there—some time, that’s guaranteed—but it was long enough to realize that they better get themselves warm as soon as possible.

For a minute Beth allows herself to think about Grady, and a small laugh of disbelief passes between her lips before she can stop it. Rick, still standing by the window and glancing about through the curtain every so often, turns to eye her warily.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothin’,” Beth shakes her head, teeth chattering. “It’s just a little ironic that this happens my first time goin’ out since I made it to Alexandria—that we’d be chased by walkers. Guess I can’t take it easy even for a second, huh?”

Rick seems to think it over for a second himself, a soft smile coloring his features a second or so later. “It is,” he acknowledges with a nod.

It’s true. After Grady, after her miraculous escape and return to her family, there had been quite a short leash attached to Beth. The blonde had developed memory loss from the gun wound to her head and Maggie and the others had feared for her health, forcing her to stay within eye’s distance to heal. How Beth had survived at all, the group having to leave what they assumed to be her dead body behind in a car outside of Grady, Rick will never know. But he’s thankful for it every day—thankful for Morgan, someone else he had presumed dead and gone, to bring her back to them.

But she had been taking it easy ever sense. This morning’s outing, heading off with Rick to find supplies, had been her first time leaving Alexandria sense her arrival. Their doctor had finally givin her the okay to begin activity again just the week before and Beth couldn’t wait for a bit of time outside of the walls, time to herself—or mostly so. She hadn’t really minded being paired with Rick though, glad to be in his presence without feeling smothered. And although there are still bits and pieces of her memory failing her, Beth is confident in herself now more so than ever before.

The hardest part, she reasons, are the memories she has lost from time with her pseudo apocalypse family. Bits and pieces of her life at the prison and at Grady are still coming and going, fogging her brain. She had to be reintroduced completely to Sasha and informed of Tyreese’s death. And of her father’s death as well. That had been the worst part.

Whenever she watches Rick she can’t help in feeling something familiar hanging deep within her chest. Something she’s been trying to grasp onto, although she doesn’t quite remember what it is or why it’s there.

“We should get you warm,” he tells her, breaking Beth from her own thoughts. The girl, still shivering, nods before standing.

Together she and Rick thoroughly investigate the home, checking for walkers and food and making certain that they will be safe inside of this home until morning.

Eventually they both find themselves in one of the upstairs bedrooms, a lone candle lighting their darkness.

“Didn’t find any clothes for us to change into,” Rick admits, running his fingers along the slight scruff of his beard thoughtfully. “You take those off and crawl under the covers and I’ll set them by the fire downstairs to dry.”

Beth blushes softly at the thought, feeling suddenly self-conscious to be here alone with Rick. “What about you?”

He shrugs, turning away to look off towards the door. “I’ll be fine,” he promises, “it’s not too bad.”

This has the blonde frowning, crossing her arms in front of her chest as she takes in his appearance. He’s drenched, maybe even more than she is, and can’t seem to stop shaking himself. “You’re not fine,” she remarks seriously. “We’ll just share the covers. Take this down with you and you can wrap it around yourself for the walk back up.”

Handing over one of the sheets he seems to regard it skeptically, looking Beth’s stern features over for a moment before he sighs and accepts the offered cloth.

“Now turn around.”

Rick does as told, playing with the fabric in his hands. He can hear Beth as she rustles behind him and knows that she is removing her clothes. This causes him to swallow thickly, eyes suddenly downcast. Thoughts of her back at the prison begin to resurface but he blinks them away.

Eventually she finishes, calling him back over. Rick turns, spotting her beneath the warmth of the covers. Reaching down towards the ground, he grabs her discarded clothing and takes off hastily for downstairs.

* * *

 

It’s uncomfortable for the most part, but Rick begins to settle down into the mattress after a while. He knows it’s probably a bad idea to be up here with Beth, both without clothes and beneath the sheets. And especially because nobody is downstairs to keep watch. But he just can’t pull himself away. It’s their first time being alone together since her return and he’s finding himself clinging to her side, wanting to keep her at arm’s length and safe from any possible disturbances.

Rick’s heart begins thrumming within his chest and he feels almost as though he may be about to have a heart attack. But he knows they are just nerves. Being with her, here and now in this way, brings back a lot of feelings he had always been attempting to bottle down beforehand—back before Beth had been shot and he’d presumed her to be dead.

Now here she is, alive in the flesh and lying right beside him.

He swallows heavily, closing both eyes as he takes a deep breath, before he turns to meet her gaze. His palms begin to sweat once it’s apparent she had already been looking at him to begin with.

“I was never planin’ to say anythin’,” he admits, voice soft. Beth watches him, compliant but with her nose scrunching slightly in confusion. Rick pauses, biting at his lower lips. His hands flex beneath the fabric of the sheets and he makes a fist with his hand, hoping to wring in his emotions a bit.

“About what?”

“About you,” he shrugs, “about how I feel about you.”

The blonde watches with baited breath, suddenly very anxious. A part of her feels scandalized, in disbelief over Rick’s words, but something else—something deeper—feels very drawn to him in this moment.

“But after Grady and after the accident, when I thought you had died…” Rick trails off, voice hoarse. Before Beth thinks better of it, she reaches out to grab his hand. “I don’t want to go on any longer without admitin’ this to you, Beth. I care about you a lot, maybe even love you. I have since the prison. And to think you had died—I just don’t want to go on any longer without tellin’ you the truth.”

Beth regards him for a moment or two, big blue eyes blinking repeatedly as she takes an instant for herself to breathe in his words. It’s only after he pulls her close, pressing a quick kiss to her forehead, that the weird feelings she has had whenever she’s been around Rick begin to finally make concrete sense.

Suddenly she can recall Rick in the hallway with her at Grady, his hand cupping her neck and lips kissing her in the same way he had just now. And, in return, Beth can feel the love she had felt back then during that moment—the reciprocation.

Vision after vision of her and Rick at the prison begins to come back to the forefront of her mind. Beth giggling as she would listen to any of his stories, pushing her blonde locks back behind her ear while she would watch him in the field. There had always been a soft shuddering of desire within the pit of her stomach back then. There had been a sense of longing.

She takes a minute to compose herself upon remembering such a thing, breathing in and out in deep succession, before she pulls back far enough to meet Rick’s gaze.

He looks nervous for a moment, almost fearful that she is about to reject him. It’s only after she kisses him that he begins to fully relax, Beth pressing her lips to Rick’s own as though her life depends on it. And it may very well.

She can remember being in love with him, falling in love with the dark haired male during her tenure caring for Judith. It’s something the blonde had always wanted to confess to, but she had been far too shy and certain that Rick would fail to reciprocate her feelings.

Now, being here in bed beside him with love in his eyes and his lips pressed against her own, Beth is thankful to have remembered it all.

They kiss passionately for a few moments longer, tongue’s meeting as they taste one another for the very first time. Eventually Rick pulls away, breathing heavily and eyes darkened from lust, as he rests his forehead against Beth’s own. “I was afraid of tellin’ you, afraid of scarin’ you off after your accident.” He confesses sincerely. “But bein’ here with you tonight, I knew I couldn’t keep it hidden any longer.”

Beth smiles softly, sadly, and nods. “I know. But I love you too,” she promises, kissing his cheek after. “I have for a while, I just forgot about it for a little bit. But I remember everything now.”

Her hand is gentle on his face, fingertips exploring the flesh of his cheek and then lower and lower. “You helped me remember,” she promises through a whisper, her palm descending his chest before finally cupping Rick intimately.

He groans softly in response, eyes shutting as he allows for his own pleasure to take over. Ultimately, once they are both nearing the edge, their bodies begin to shake but due to an entirely different purpose than the chill of the rain.

When Rick finally aligns himself with her entrance he promises his love to her in both kisses and whispers beside the shell of her ear.

And Beth silently swears to herself that she will never forget about this love again.


End file.
